Confront
by Saya Moonshadow
Summary: Can you consider your own malevolent self to be a monster as terrible as any you've ever faced in battle? Tahucentric. Inspired by DataIntegrationThoughtEntity's "The Flame of Betrayal".


**Inspired by **_**DataIntegration**__**Thought**__**Entity's**_** fic **_**The Flame of Betrayal**_**, because it's awesome and you should go read it if you haven't already done so. Seriously.**

**Disclaimer: **_**Bionicle **_**is not mine, nor will it ever be. I can dream, though. Quotes from "Confrontation" belong to the writers of **_**Jekyll & Hyde: The Musical.**_

**Summary: Can you consider your own malevolent self to be a monster as terrible as any you've ever faced in battle?**

**Confront  
By: Saya Moonshadow**

Sometimes when he looked in the mirror, he could see a monster.

A smirking monster, that looked exactly like him.

And then he'd blink, and it would be gone. There would be just him. Just him, the mirror, and his reflection, pale and feverish, staring back at him with wide pinkish-red eyes.

Why was it that he saw a monster sometimes instead of himself? Was he just dreaming, or was he seeing something in himself that was really there?

The thought made him want to retch, but he suppressed it.

He couldn't help the feelings of jealousy. They plagued him constantly, try as he might to repress them. Every time that little..._bastard_ so much as breathed, rage swelled inside of him, and he had to take a deep breath and bring his temperature back down to normal before anyone noticed.

Face turned back to the mirror, he caught his breath at the monster staring back at him, and let out a gasp as it smirked again. He pressed a hand to his aching head, muttering, "No, no...go away, you're not real..."

"_Did you really think that I would ever let you go?"_

That voice cut into him like a knife. It was his own voice, in the same light tone he tended to use unless angry. HIS voice, coming from that demon's mouth.

"All you are is a face in the mirror," Tahu snarled back, even though his head throbbed terribly. "If I close my eyes, you'll disappear."

He closed his eyes, feeling a smile begin to break out for the first time in so long, and then opened them again.

The monster was still there.

And it was sneering at him, smirking and sneering horribly. _"You can't abandon me, fool. If you thought I'd ever set you free?"_ It reached through the mirror and caressed his cheek softly, mockingly. Still smirking all the while. _"I'm sorry to say that it simply isn't so. I will never let you go."_

Tahu jerked away from its hand, and it laughed, high and warm. His laugh...

"Leave me alone!" he snarled out. "You may look like me, but--"

"_I AM YOU!"_ the monster roared, and he fell silent for a moment then shook his head to clear it and plowed on.

"No you're not, you're nothing like me! Absolutely nothing!"

"_Oh?"_ his monster snorted, _"Nothing like you? You can't deny the anger that grips you whenever you see the little sunspot. I feel them as well, you know, my friend. Give it up; we are one and the same."_

"I..." Tahu breathed. It was as if someone had just punched him in the gut with all the strength of a Pakari Nuva. "I'm not jealous...I don't hate him..."

His monster laughed at him for this. _"Liar! I am you, I know what you feel deep down in your darkest heart. It consumes you. _I_ consume you. I will never let you go."_

Staring into each other's eyes. Toa to monster. Monster to Toa.

Tahu to Tahu.

"_You only have to hear his name to bring it all back...I only have to say his name to prove myself right."_

Tahu's eyes widened, then narrowed, and he whirled on his monster, rage coursing through him. "DON'T--"

"_Takanuva! Takanuva! Takanuva! Darling little Takua, now turned into the blessed Toa of Light that was prophesied by Turaga Vakama! Takanuva! Watch as he takes all the love that should be yours and hordes it all to himself, why don't you? Takanuva! That's his name, and you hate him!"_

"I HATE NO ONE!" Tahu shouted; Mata Nui above, he was so angry, all he wanted to do was reach over and choke the life out of that smiling monster and watch as its will to live slowly ebbed away, _because every little thing it was saying was bloody true--_

"_As long as you live, I will still be here!"_ His monster screamed with laughter, mocking laughter that no longer resembled his, but still somehow did at the same time, and Great Spirits, why wouldn't it just end? _"Each time you look in the mirror, you see me, because _I_ am what you really are! You can't escape me, and you never will."_ The smirk was back and now more pronounced than ever. _"This is not a dream, and it will never end!"_

"NO!"

The mirror fell to the floor, split in half by the sword he had unconsciously whipped out and slashed it with in his rage, and he stood there for a moment, panting hard and trying to catch his breath. Cold sweat ran down his body, and he pressed a hand to his heartlight, which was pulsating oddly.

"Toa Tahu? Are you alright?" Jaller's head peeked in through the hut's entrance, face questioning and concerned. His eyes fell on the broken mirror and he gave a start. "Oh...your mirror--"

Tahu waved a hand, still trying to catch his breath. "It doesn't matter. Just...just a bad...bad daydream. Just a monster..." He muttered this last part to himself, but Jaller heard him anyway. "Monster?"

He narrowed his eyes, annoyed. "I said it was nothing. Now go away, I want to be alone."

Jaller frowned, but gave a short bow and left just as quickly as he had come.

Tahu let out the breath he had been holding, and turned back to the broken mirror. It shone innocently in the sun's light back at him, caught in the sunrays coming from the window. He stared at it for a minute before speaking softly. "Deep inside..."

"_I am you!"_

He whirled around with his sword held protectively in front of him, eyes scanning the room in a panicked frenzy before finally being forced to concede that there was no one in there except for himself.

Himself and his monster.

The next morning, the mirror was back on the wall, rather clumsily repaired, and shining in the sun's light.

Tahu stood and faced it, determined to force his problem away once and for all. But his will almost failed him when his reflection winked at him and gave him another smirk.

"You will never control me. I control you." he told it, and it smirked wider. "This I promise you, till the day that I die."

"_As long as you live, I will still be here."_ his monster said, and then, suddenly, his regular reflection was back, staring at him with strained pinkish-red eyes.

He never saw his monster ever again.

X x X

**END.**

X x X

**AN: Meh, I'm in my usual end-of-the-year funk right now, not to mention strangely anxious and borderline panicking for some reason, so I wrote this to help myself calm down. As well as a tribute to one of my favorite stories on this site. Alright, in case you didn't get it, this is set right after Takanuva beat Teridax in **_**Mask of Light**_**, and Tahu's a little jealous because darling ol' Takanewbie's stealing the spotlight.**

**Please review, it makes me happy.**


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